Foreign Ministry offers condolences over death of Fidel Castro

News Desk

The Jakarta Post

Jakarta /
Sun, November 27, 2016 / 11:04 am

Cuban leader Fidel Castro (left) is helped into his chair by his brother Raul Castro as he arrives at the National Assembly in Havana, on Dec. 23, 2004. The former president, who led a rebel army to improbable victory in Cuba, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 US presidents during his half-century rule, has died at age 90. The bearded revolutionary, who survived a crippling US trade embargo, as well as dozens, possibly hundreds, of assassination plots, died eight years after ill health forced him to formally hand power over to his younger brother Raul, who announced his death late on Nov. 25 on state television. (AP/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)

The Foreign Ministry has expressed deep condolences over the passing of former Cuban president Fidel Castro on Friday night.

"Indonesia prays for the family, the government and the people of Cuba to be given strength on the passing away of the honorable Fidel Castro,” the ministry’s spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said in a statement on Sunday as repeated by kompas.com.

The Associated Press reported that Castro, who led a rebel army to improbable victory in Cuba, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 US presidents during his half-century rule, died at age 90.

With a shaking voice, his younger brother, Raul Castro, announced on state television that his brother had died at 10:29 p.m. local time on Nov. 25.

Castro's reign over the island nation 145 kilometers from Florida was marked by the US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis a year later that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. The bearded revolutionary, who survived a crippling US trade embargo, as well as dozens, possibly hundreds, of assassination plots, died eight years after ill health forced him to formally hand power over to Raul.

Earlier, Vice President Jusuf Kalla also expressed condolences over the death of Castro, saying that he had been a good friend to Indonesia's first president and founding father, Sukarno.

“Fidel Castro was Bung Karno’s best friend who struggled for the non-aligned movement. Both were fighters,” Kalla said. (jun)